,«a.i""w  'j 


^■m  ■!  ■■ran* 


HOW    TO    LEARN: 


AN    ADDRESS, 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  STUDENTS  OF 

HOLLY       SPEINGS      ACADEMY 
WAKE  COUNTY,  N.  €. 

THIRD  OP  JUNE,  1859. 


BY 


EDWAED    CANT  WELL. 


EALEIGH. 
Printed  by  E.  EL  Whitaker,  "  Democratic  Press/' 

1859. 


gMUk-jumc 


553©; 


HOW    TO    LEARN 


AN    ADDRESS, 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  STUDENTS  OF 


HOLLY    SPRINGS    ACADEMY, 


WAKE  COUNTY,  N.  C. 


THIRD  OF   JUNE,  1859. 


EDWARD    CANTWELL 


RALEIGH. 
Printed  by  R.  H.  Whitaker,  "  Democratic  Press.3' 

1859. 


cyan  g 


ADDRESS. 


Fellow-Citizens  of  Holly  Springs, 

And  Young  Gentlemen  op  the  'Academy  : 

It  is  not  often  that  we  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
so  many  citizens  of  this  part  of  our  county  together. 
You  live  here,  nearly  twenty  miles  from  the  Capitol 
and  about  an  equal  distance  from  any  railway.  I  did 
not  find  the  road  this  morning,  quite  so  smooth  as 
that  which  the  ancient  poets  represent  to  have  led  to 
the  lower  regions — it  rather  partook  of  the  opposite 
character,  and  justifies  therefore  the  pleasing  antici- 
pations of  this  visit  which  I  do  now  realize.  I  am 
glad  to  see  many  other  citizens  of  Ealeigh  present. 
I  am  glad  that  these  opportunities  are  occasionally 
presented,  for  a  pleasant  social  intercourse  between 
the  town  and  the  country.  I  am  sure,  that  they  will 
contribute  to  the  mutual  benefit — dissipate  prejudice 
— encourage  a  better  acquaintance,  and  promote 
good  feeling. 

This  school  house  before  which  we  are  now  on  this 
pleasant  day  assembled,  my  presence  here,  and  this 
attentive  and  respectable  audience,  composed  of  the 
young  gentlemen  who  have  honored  me  with  the  in- 
vitation to  address  them,  and,  for  the  most  part,  of 
the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  village  and  surround- 
ing country,  indicate  very  clearly,  that  the  people  of 
this  part  of  Wake  county — known  abroad  as  the 
Dark  Corner — and  especially  those  of  them  whose 
children  are  large  enough  to  go  to  school,  are  alive 
to  the  duties  of  their  position. 

We  feel,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  that  it  is  incum- 
bent upon  us  to  provide  for  the  future  wants  of  the 
community  to  which  we  belong — that  we  are  bound 
to  supply  them  at  a  con  venient  distance  from  home  the 
opportunities  and  facilities  for  acquiring  at  least  the 
elements  of  common  information  and  knowledge ; 


9 
00 

to 


because,  deprived  of  them,  we  feel,  that  these  boys 
and  young  men,  when  they  go  into  the  world,  would 
hardly  be  thought  much  more  of,  than  the  perishing 
brutes  by  which  we  are  surrounded. 

History  sacred  and  profane,  and  nature  in  its  dai- 
ly manifestations  conspire  to  impress  us,  very  strik- 
ingly, with  the  strength  and  the  universality  of  that 
sentiment  of  parental  tenderness  these  things  in- 
dicate. Speculating  upon  it,  Solomon  acquired  the 
reputation  for  wisdom  which  has  survived  even  his 
temple  and  kingdom.  There  was  a  child,  you  recol- 
lect, in  dispute  between  two  women.  He  directed 
the  infant  to  be  cut  in  two, and  one  half  given  to  each 
of  the  contestants.  The  pretended  mother  at  once 
accepted  the  proposition,  but  the  true  author  of  the 
little  innocent's  being  spoke,  when  she  said:  'The 
child  is  mine,  but  save  its  life,  my  lord,  and  give  it 
all  to  her  !'  Speculating  upon  it,  Palamedes  took 
the  infant  Telemachus  to  the  sea-shore,  where  the 
king  of  Ithaca,  refusing  to  embark,  insanely  plowed 
the  sand  with  a  yoke  of  horses  and  bulls,  and  cast  the 
babe  into  the  furrow.  Parental  love,  more  strong 
than  the  allurements  of  ease,  subdued  the  crafty 
hero.  He  turned  the  plow  away  from  the  body  of 
his-  boy,  and  putting  on  his  sword  and  shield,  pro- 
ceeded upon  that  campaign  from  which  he  did  not 
return  for  twenty  years.  This  love  for  offspring — this 
desire  for  its  safety  and  appropriate  education  is  an 
instinct  of  nature, and  stronger  even  than  self-preser- 
vation pervades  every  form  of  created  life.  The  same 
matchless  tenderness  which  fills  the  mother's  breast, 
when  the  eyes  of  her  first  born,  for  the  first  time 
gleam  with  the  sunshine  of  an  awakening  intelli- 
gence and  affection,  is  also  discovered  in  the  agoniz- 
ing cry  of  the  hunted  beast,  which,  careless  of  her 
own  life,  interposes  her  bleeding  form  between  the 
pursuers  and  her  progeny — prolonging  even  mortal 
agonies  with  the  hope  of  their  preservation;  it  speaks  in 
the  whispering  leaves  that  canopy  the  trees  of  earth ;  up- 


3 

on  every  one  of  which  countless  colonies  crowd  a  micro- 
scopic home  ;  it  is  written  upon  the  nebulous  depths 
of  ether,  where  sweeping  the  skies  with  his  wondrous 
telescope,  the  awed  observer  starts  from  the  star  dust, 
a  wilderness  of  spheres  .  It  is  found  in  the  cham- 
bers of  the  deep,  down  in  that  dark  abyss,  where  the 
plummet  of  all  man's  works,  alone  invades  the  silent 
floors  of  the  sea,  and  returns  a  conqueror,  laden  with 
the  spoils  of  triumph.  Everywhere  present  through- 
out the  universe  of  being,  the  same  parental  love 
thrills  the  heart  of  the  civilized  man  and  the  savage, 
moistens  the  eye  of  the  untamed  king  of  the  forests  ; 
smiles  in  the  oak  whose  protecting  arms  surround  its 
leafy  young  ;  crawls  with  the  worm,  and  creeps  in 
showers  of  green  and  gold,  among  the  flowers  and 
buds,  that  gem  the  circling  vine.  No  sooner  does  each 
arrive  at  maturity  than  evolving  from  its  own  bosom 
the  germ  of  its  race,  it  nurses  that  germ  with  its  life- 
blood  and  substance,  devotes  its  own  life  to  the  busi- 
ness of  its  preservation,  yields  up  without  a  murmur 
its  own  freshness  and  youth,  its  beauty  and  bloom, and 
even  in  a  death  occasioned  by  its  cares,  finds  a  com- 
pensating glory  in  the  preservation  of  the  species. 

The  animal  man  is  distinguished  from  all  life-bear- 
ing and  producing  creatures  by  the  faculty  of  Rea- 
son. Each  of  them  is  endowed  with  a  certain  indi- 
vidual intelligence,  the  cultivation  oi  which  is  the 
proper  business  of  the  race.  This  is  Education.  The 
parent's  duty  is  founded  on  the  fact,  that  this  facul- 
ty of  Reason  is  susceptible  of  cultivation  only  in 
youth.  '  Unless,'  says  the  philosophic  Rousseau,  c  a 
man  learns  to  think  while  he  is  yet  young,  he  will 
never  think  at  all.'  The  development  of  a  power  to 
think,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  memory,  are  there- 
fore the  objects  of  all  the  various  systems  of  teaching 
youth,  which  have  been  or  may  yet  be  introduced. — 
These  elementary  faculties  are  to  be  excited  to  vitali- 
ty and  action  by  the  application  of  systematic  study 
and  discipline,  or  the  mind  of  the  pupil  remains  dor- 


6 

mant,  undeveloped  ;  like  the  coal  and  iron  upon  Deep 
River,  which,  left  there  in  the  howels  of  the  earth, 
add  nothing  to  the  resources  of  the  State,  hut  mined 
and  carried  to  market,  might  even  enable  us  to  re- 
sume and  to  maintain  the  independence  we  surren- 
dered in  '89.  Alluding  to  the  analogy  which  exists 
between  the  human  mind  left  to  itself  and  the  neg- 
lected farm,  Lord  Bacon  remarks,  l  you  have  to  choose 
between  herbs  and  weeds,  the  germs  of  both  are  there, 
but  the  one  must  be  watered  and  the  other  destroyed 
by  the  hand  of  labor.' 

To  accomplish  these  purposes,  the  first  thing  a  boy 
has  to  learn  at  school  is  a  habit  of  attention.  Atten- 
tion is  to  science,  what  the  alphabet  is  to  language, 
and  I  think  it  more  generally  capable  of  cultivation 
and  improvement,  than  seems  to  be  supposed  by  most 
writers.  I  think  besides,  that  it  is  a  more  universal 
faculty.  The  ability  to  summon  the  assistance  of  all 
the  mental  powers  at  any  moment  they  are  required, 
is  the  highest  evidence  of  genius.  The  ability  to  con- 
fine them  to  a  single  subject  of  investigation  at  one 
time,  is  an  evidence  of  talent.  The  latter  may  be 
acquired,  if  the  former  cannot,  and  it  is  indispensa- 
ble not  only  to  any  progress  in  learning,  but 
even  to  a  beginning  to  learn.  You  may  with  most 
boys  measure  and  predict  the  exact  amount  of  success 
they  will  meet  in  life,  by  t  le  extent  to  which  the  fa- 
culty of  Attention  is  enjoyed,  or  is  capable  of  being 
cultivated.  Once  the  self-control  it  requires  becomes 
habitual,  the  operations  of  an  educated  mind,  sway- 
ed by  its  influence,  seem  to  the  bewildered  and  ad- 
miring observer,  like  the  effects  of  inspiration.  The 
man  is  transformed  and  transfigured.  The  soul 
shakes  off  the  body,  and  is  itself  visible.  We  think 
of  the  splendid  description  of  Hamlet : 

'  What  a  piece  of  work  is  a  man  !  How  noble  in 
reason  ;  how  infinite  in  faculties ;  in  form  and  mov- 
ing how  express  and  admirable  ;  in  action  how  like 
an  Angel ;  in  apprehension  how  like  a  God  !' 


Long  after  the  beauties  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
shall  have  been  so  completely  naturalized  in  English, 
as  that  we  will  cease  to  regard  them  as  the  only  true 
standards  of  literary  excellence,  and  may  one  day 
even  exclude  them  from  the  curriculum  of  practical 
study,  they  will  be  recommended  to  the  student  as  a 
means  of  acquiring  and  retaining  this  control  over 
the  operations  and  powers  of  his  mind;  and  this,  too, 
is  the  object  proposed  by  the  study  of  the  pure  math- 
ematics. Observation  convinces  me,  however,  that 
too  exclusive  a  study  of  Law,  Mathematics,  Langua- 
ges, or  any  other  science,  deprives  the  mind  of  com- 
mon sense,  and  begets  habits  of  intolerance.  Madame 
DeStael  used  to  account  for  the  ill-temper  of  some  of 
her  cotemporaries,  by  the  suggestion  that  they  were 
Mathematicians.  I  can  conceive  of  few  beings  more 
completely  isolated,  than  a  mere  lawyer,  especially 
if  he  be  a  first-rate  one.  With  him  everything  is  '  a 
case/  and  every  incident  of  the  day  involves  'points' 
of  more  or  less  obscurity  and  importance.  He  sees 
no  joke  unless  through  the  quaint  media  of  trespass 
assumpsit  or  replevin.  Show  him  a  fine  prospect, 
he  thinks  of  the  action  of  Ejectment.  Take  him  to 
a  wedding,  he  remembers  the  settlements  of  a  hun- 
dred generations,  and  going  to  a  funeral  will  perplex 
and  worry  himself  with  the  doctrine  of  Wills  and 
Executors,  while  a  dear  friend  is  being  lowered  into 
the  common  receptacle  of  decaying. humanity.  Some 
great  lawyers  have  been  wits,  but  not  many,  and 
their  wit  was  always  of  that  quaint  and  musty  sort, 
that  could  not  be  appreciated  beyond  the  bar.  I  hap- 
pened once  to  be  present  in  a  party  of  gentlemen,  all 
lawyers,  one  of  whom  wasa  wit ;  one  a  great  lawyer 
then  and  now  upon  the  State  Bench,  then  and 
now  remarkable  for  the  force  and  beauty  of  his  rea- 
son upon  purely  legal  questions,  then  and  now  sus- 
pected of  being  insensible  to  a  joke  or  pleasantry,  un- 
less connected  in  some  way  near  or  remote  with  a 
question  of  law.     An  eminent  practitioner,  whom  I 


a 

will  not  name  or  describe,  approaching  him  familiar- 
ly, said,  *  Well  Judge,  what  do  you  think  of  my 
great  Equity  speech  to-day  ?  I  give  up,  that  the 
law  argument  was  not  worth  much,  hut  I  insist  that, 
(and  here  he  looked  jocular)  my  Equity  speech  was 
good/  'Well'  said  His  Honor,  with  deliberation, 
*  as  you  say,  the  law  speech  was  a  failure ;  but  I 
rather  doubt,  whether  under  all  the  circumstances 
the  Equity  argument  was  not  the  worst  of  the  two  V — 
The  gentleman  already  alluded  to,  thinking  such 
frankness  on  the  part  of  the  Judge  rather  more  hon- 
est than  agreeable,  and  that  he  might  as  well  inter- 
pose to  explain  the  misunderstanding,  here  observed, 
that  the  lawyers  quere  and  the  result,  reminded  him 
of  a  story  he  had  once  heard  of  a  dog,  that  one  neigh- 
bour sold  to  another  and  warranted  to  be  a  good  pos- 
sum dog.  The  dog  having  turned  out  to  be  worth- 
less in  that  particular,  the  purchaser  enquired  why 
he  was  supposed  to  be  a  good  possum  dog.  c  Oh 
that/  said  the  first  owner,  is  very  easily  explained, 
c  you  see,  that  I  know  he  is  a  good  dog,  and  I  tried 
him  with  coons  ;  I  tried  him  with  partridges,  and  I 
tried  him  with  wild  duck  and  with  deer  ;  in  fact  I 
tried  him  with  every  thing  but  possum,  and  he  failed 
in  all,  except  that ;  but  he  was  a  good  dog,  and  so  I 
thought  he  must  be  a  good  possum  dog,  because  he 
had  not  been  tried  with  possum/ 

The  judge  who  had  listened  to  this  anecdote  with 
much  attention,  was  evidently  puzzled  to  see  the 
point.  At  last  after  several  explanations  had  been 
made,  an  idea  seemed  to  strike  him,  and  to  make 
the  story  intelligible. 

'Your  notion  is  perhaps  this, said  he,  'thatthe  dog  is 
like  that  estate  of  freehold  which  Blackstone  and  other 
writers  describe  by  the  long  periphrase  of  a  ftenant- 
in-tail-after-possibility-of-issue-extinct/  simply  be- 
cause it  cannot  be  described  hy  any  shorter  title,  or 
in  fewer  words.  This  happens,  he  says,  where  one 
is  tenant  in  special  tail,  and   a  person  from  whos«^ 


body  the  issue  was  to  spring  dies  without  issue,  or 
having  left  issue,  that  issue  becomes  extinct.  Here 
the  tenant  surviving  the  special  tail,  becomes  tenant 
in  tail  after  the  possibility  of  issue  is  extinct,  and 
without  that  long  periphrase,  you  can  form,  says  the 
law,  no  adequate  idea  of  his  estate.  For,  if  you  call 
him  { tenant-in-fee-tail-special/  that  would  not  have 
distinguished  him  from  others,  and  besides,  would 
not  be  correct,  for  he  has  now  no  inheritance.  If 
you  call  himctenant-in-tail-without-issue,' that  would 
only  have  described  the  present  state  of  facts,  and 
would  not  exclude  a  future  possibility.  Call  him 
'  tenant- in- tail-without-possibility-of-issue,'  and  you 
exclude  the  idea  of  a  succession  that  was  at  one  time 
possible.  No  definition  can,  therefore,  so  appropri- 
ately and  exactly  describe  the  estate  as  one  which, 
with  a  precision  peculiar  to  our  law,  not  only  takes 
in  all  these  possibilities,  but  states  that  they  are  now 
extinguished  and  gone.  I  think  that  I  can  now 
see,'  continued  His  Honor,  <  the  point  you  wish  to 
make.  The  dog  in  our  case,  can  neither  be  called 
a  coon  dog,  a  partridge  dog,  or  a  wild  duck  or  deer 
dog,  but  being  a  good  dog — good  for  something — it 
followed  he  was  a  good  possum  dog.  He  was  either 
that,  or  he  was  no  dog  at  all;  and  the  application  is 
this,  that  for  that  whereas,  our  friend  admits,  that 
he  does  not  know  the  common  law,  and  we  know  he 
is  a  good  lawyer,  why  he  must  be  a  good  Equity  law- 
yer, because  he  must  either  be  that  or  nothing.  All 
of  which/  concluded  His  Honor  gravely,  'is  perfectly 
clear,  and  as  was  at  first  remarked,  somewhat  funny/ 

I  believe  we  all  laughed  more  at  this  learned  expo- 
sition, than  we  did  at  any  other  part  of  the  whole  in- 
cident. It  illustrates  the  point  I  make,  that  no  one 
faculty  of  the  mind  ought  to  be  cultivated  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  others. 

My  young  friends,  in  the  formation  of  character 
and  the  building  up  of  a  great  name,  the  possession 
of  the  most  splendid  abilities,  can  never  be  adequate- 


10 

ly  displayed  until  the  moment  of  an  adverse  encoun- 
ter. Like  a  bird  of  paradise  flying  against  the 
wind,  the  mind  gains  grace  and  vigor  by  the  storm  it 
encounters,  and  in  adverse  currents  shows  its  bright- 
est plumage.  So  too  in  the  acquirement  of  knowledge 
and  the  development  of  the  intellectual  or  teachable 
faculty,  nothing  truly  great  or  admirable  was  ever 
yet  done  or  acquired  without  labor.  The  cultivation 
of  the  Attention  in  particular,  requires  at  first  a  se- 
vere struggle.  It  is  essentially  a  painful  operation, 
but  let  the  student  be  not  discouraged.  Tell  him  to 
summon  all  his  resolution,  and  a  triumph  great  and 
permanent,  bearing  results  equivalent  to  the  strug- 
gle, awaits  him. 

When  I  began  the  study  of  law  at  Charleston  in 
1841,  among  the  young  gentlemen  I  met  in  the  office 
of  my  instructor,  was  one  who  has  since  reached  the 
highest  rank  in  his  profession  as  an  advocate,  and 
who  was  willingly  locked  up  before  he  could  sum- 
mon the  resolution  to  submit  to  a  three  hours  sitting. 
Depend  upon  it,  no  man  who  cannot  study  three 
hours  at  a  sitting  with  ease  and  profit,  will  ever  rise 
above  mediocrity,  and  those  who  have  most  filled  the 
world  with  their  writings  and  fame,  have  most  usu- 
ally confined  themselves  to  no  more  extended  exer- 
tion. The  mind  needs  recreation  as  well  as  repose, 
an  interval  of  study  should  be  followed  by  one  of 
amusement,  exertion  by  rest,  and  application  to  one 
brauch  relieved  by  application  to  another,  the  memo- 
ry all  the  while  being  taught  to  recal  and  to  record 
the  st  ps  of  this  intellectual  progress. 

In  a  little  while  after  habits  of  study  are  acquired, 
the  student  will  learn  to  prefer  some  branches  of 
study  to  others,  and  in  each  branch  particular  wri- 
ters and  styles  of  thought.  Now,  the  moment  he 
perceives  the  dawn  of  this  like  and  dislike,  if  he  will 
apply  himself  to  ascertain  and  classify  the  causes  of 
the  preference,  he  will  begin  the  study  and  cultiva- 
tion of  the  most  delightful  exercise  of  the  human 


11 

mind.  I  mean  the  art  of  criticism.  By  close  obser- 
vation the  student  will  discover  that  every  sensation 
of  pleasure  or  disappointment  which  he  realizes  in 
any  literary  performance  whatever,  is  the  result  of 
certain  known  causes,  and  is  not  always  the  effect 
of  accident,  or  indicative  merely  of  the  possession  or 
the  want  of  rare  intellectual  endowments.  In  other 
words,  from  the  art  of  Rhetoric  we  learn  that  it  is  as 
easy  to  construct  a  good  poem  or  oration,  as  it  is  to 
build  a  wagon,  or  to  hammer  out  with  brain  and  sweat 
and  muscle  the  curves  of  the  horse-shoe. 

Young  gentlemen,  be  not  discouraged,  but  by  all 
means  be  not  deceived.  You  must  not  suffer  your- 
selves to  dream  that  those  great  master  works  of 
human  genius  which  survive  the  flight  of  ages  and 
resisting  time  with  more  success  than  if  built  of 
brass  or  marble,  indicate  a  geology  in  the  language 
they  preserve  as  well  as  adorn — you  must  not  dream, 
I  say,  that  these  splendid  works  were  the  results  of 
inspiration,  or  of  any  other  process  than  earnest  ed- 
ucated labor.  Many  of  you  have  doubtless  read  and 
admired  the  splendid  peroration  to  Mr.  Webster's 
reply  to  Hayne  in  the  debate  upon  Foot's  Resolution. 

'  When  my  eyes,'  says  the  speaker  '  shall  be  turn- 
ed to  behold  for  the  last  time  the  sun  in  the  heavens, 
may  I  not  see  him  shining  on  the  broken  and  dis- 
honored fragments  of  a  once  glorious  union  ;  on 
States  dissevered,  discordant,  belligerent ;  on  a  land 
rent  with  civil  feuds,  and  drenched,  it  may  be,  in 
fraternal  blood  !  Let  their  last  feeble  and  lingering 
glance  rather  behold  the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the  Re- 
public, now  known  and  honored  throughout  the 
earth,  still  full  high  advanced,  its  arms  and  trophies 
streaming  in  their  original  lustre  ;  not  a  stripe 
erased  or  polluted,  nor  a  single  star  obscured  ;  its 
ample  folds  blazing  in  characters  of  living  light  as 
they  float  over  the  sea  and  over  the  land,  and  in 
every  wind  under  the  whole  heavens,  with  the  senti- 
ment dear  to   every  American    heart — Liberty  and 


12 

Union,   now   and  forever,    one    and   inseparable!' 

I  have  seen  it  stated  some  where,  that  this  fine 
composition,  like  all  others  of  which  any  honest  ac- 
count has  reached  us,  cost  the  labor  of  many  an 
hour.  The  liberty  which  I  have  taken  with  it,  shows 
that  it  is  not  yet  perfect,  but  in  any  form  in  which 
it  can  be  presented  to  an  audience,  it  will  live  as  long 
as  the  language  itself. 

The  last  consideration  by  which  I  will  invite  you, 
to  cultivate  habits  of  attention  and  labor  is,  that  you 
will  thereby  as  a  speaker  or  writer  always  secure  the 
attention  of  others.  The  chief  cause  of  the  failure 
of  professional  men  is  indolence,  and  not  incapaci- 
ty,— that  indolence  which  despises  order  and  arrange- 
ment in  public  discourses,  and  which  inevitably  leads 
to  the  vice  of  prolixity  and  elaborate  dullness. 

Attention  and  Memory  being  thus  acquired  and 
cultivated,  nothing  remains  to  enable  any  student  of 
reasonable  industry  and  intelligence  to  master  some 
one  department  of  human  knowledge,  and  to  attain 
in  it  a  qualified  degree  of  eminence,  but  application. 
The  little  amount  of  diligence  and  labor  required  for 
success  in  the  practice  of  those  professions, — by  way 
of  pleasantry  still  called  '  learned'  is  amazing. ^- 
Books  upon  all  subjects  have  multiplied  so  fast,  that 
it  is  no  longer  tedious  or  difficult  to  become  even 
learned  in  any  subject  under  investigation. 

I  am  not  contending  that  without  extraordinary 
gifts,  joined  to  such  opportunities  as  are  not  furnish- 
ed except  in  Europe,  you  can  excel  in  all  the  sciences; 
but  only  this,  that  in  this  State,  and  upon  this  con- 
tinent, any  man  of  ordinary  intelligence  and  resolu- 
tion, who  will  devote  himself  sedulously  and  exclu- 
sively to  a  single  branch  of  science,  will  in  due  time 
attain  respectability  and  even  eminence  therein,  ir- 
respective of  what  is  fancifully  called  c  natural  abili- 
ty/ And  further  ;  that  (as  a  law  writer  has  also  re- 
marked) the  sciences  being  sociable — flourishing  best 
in  the  neighborhood  of  each  other,  success  in  one  in- 


13 

dicates  a  capacity  for  all  others  which  are  inferior  or 
collateral,  nothing  being  required  to  secure  it  but 
ordinary  sense,  extraordinary  industry  and  the  un- 
conquerable will  to  succeed.     , , 

Besides  the  development  of  the  thinking  faculty 
which  is  the  result  of  Attention  and  Memory  com- 
bined with  application,  the  student  in  a  school  of 
this  character,  should  be  able  to  acquire  some  little 
acquaintance  with  the  names  and  characteristic  styles 
of  the  living  and  dead  authors.  Each  of  these  styles 
or  modes  of  handling  a  subject  contain  as  much  in- 
dividuality as  the  hand-writing  in  which  they  are 
reduced  ;  and  a  thoroughly  educated  man  can  as 
readily  and  confidently  declare  a  passage  to  be  from 
Shakspere  or  Dante,  or  if  in  Latin  from  Virgil  or 
Lucretius,  as  a  hatter  or  boot-maker  will  distinguish 
a  Genin  or  a  Didot  a  Paris,from  the  ordinary  manu- 
facture. Nay,  I  have  known  men  so  skilled  in  bibli- 
ography that  they  could  tell  by  one  glance  at  the  type 
and  paper,  whether  any  given  book  was  published  in 
London,  Paris,  Boston  or  Philadelphia,  and  by  whom. 
The  faculty  of  distinguishing  the  peculiarities  of  style 
is  of  the  most  importance,  because  it  will  enable  you 
to  improve  your  own  by  comparison  and  observation . 

In  the  course  of  his  remarkable  wanderings  after 
the  destruction  of  Troy,  it  is  said  that  Ulysses  enter- 
ed at  night  the  land  of  perpetual  gloom,  and,  accord- 
ing to  the  custom  of  those  days,  having  offered  a  pro- 
pitiatory sacrifice,  he  stood  in  the  presence  of  the 
mighty  dead :  he  saw  the  heros  and  heroines  of  for- 
mer days,  and  even  talked  with  their  shades ;  but 
overcome  at  last  by  fright ;  their  numbers,  and  the 
natural  excitement  of  such  a  scene,  the  hero  hastily 
retired,  and  thus  lost  the  entire  fruits  of  his  journey. 

Young  gentlemen  ,  you  have  no  occasion  to  expose 
yourselves  to  any  such  terrors.  The  art  of  printing 
has  placed  within  your  reach  all  that  is  great  or  worth 
knowing  or  remembering  in  the  past  or  the  passing 
time.    Stretch  forth  your  hand, and  you  may  meet  in 


14 

welcome  embrace,  Homer,  Cicero,  Bacon,  Goethe, 
Schiller,  Shakespere,  Dante,  Milton,  or  Lord  Byron. 
Dead  though  they  be— like  the  prophet  Samuel  at  the 
call  of  the  despairing  prince  of  Israel — they  will  ap- 
pear at  the  moment  of  your  bidding.  No  further 
sacrifice  is  necessary  than  the  price  of  the  last  edition 
and  neither  at  Mr.  Pomeroy's  or  at  Mr.  Turner's  will 
you  hazard  a  rencontre  with  the  witch  of  Endor.  The 
departed  Gods  of  earth, no  longer  hide  in  remote  cav- 
ens,  guarded  by  obscene  and  hideous  spectres.  Their 
spirits  walk  abroad,  and  in  the  grand  and  polished 
tones  of  modern  language,  resume  the  habiliment 
of  life.  Stretched  at  lull  length,  beneath  these 
cool  and  spreading  oaks,  upon  the  grassy  lawn,  the 
bright  sunshine  sparkling  in  the  waters  at  your  feet, 
and  the  humming  bee  and  the  perfume  of  flowers, 
disipating  the  fantasy  of  a  ghost,  you  may  here  or 
anywhere, now  or  hereafter,  place  yourself  in  Hade's 
and  commune  at  ease  with  the  shades  of  Aga- 
memnon and  Achilles.  Instead  of  Mentor,  let  our 
Telemachus  take  with  him  on  each  journey  an  Anthon 
and  an  Ainsworth  or  a  Webster,  and  whether  the 
oracle  speaks  English,  Latin  or  Greek ,  never  let 
him  go  until  by  a  free  consultation  with  his  dic- 
tionary, he  finds  every  word  he  utters  intelligible. — 
Proceeding  slowly  at  first,  your  future  progress  will 
assuredly  be  more  easy  and  delightful. 

I  alluded  a  few  moments  ago  to  the  probability 
that  the  study  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  poei  s  and  ora- 
tors would  one  day  be  abolished  in  our  higher  schools 
and  intimated  that  already  they  rather  bridle  than 
assist  the  match  horses  of  Application  and  Memory. 
I  would  not  of  course,  be  understood  as  attempting 
to  depreciate  the  advantages  of  a  classical  education, 
especially  to  such  as  intend  to  pursue  the  Mechanical 
sciences,  Architecture,  Painting,  Engineering — civil 
and  military,  Sculpture  and  the  like.  In  correct  ap- 
preciation and  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  these 
arts,  we  are  yet  inferior  to  ithe  ancients,  and  our  best 


15 

attempts  in  their  imitation,- are  elaborate  failures. — 
We  stand  under  the  splendid  creations  of  their  Me- 
chanical genius  like  dwarfs  or  pigmies  beside  giants, 
but  looking  at  their  authors  and  literary  achievements, 
I  do  not  think  we  need  be  ashamed  of  the  comparison. 
Shakspere  is  not  only  the  equal  but  in  most  respects 
he  is  the  superior  to  both  Horace  and  Virgil.  I  think 
Edmund  Burke  and  John  C.  Calhoun  more  than  equal 
to  Aristotle — and  there  are  passages  in  the  speech  of 
Daniel  Webster  in  reply  to  Hayne,  and  in  the  oration 
at  the  laying  of  the  corner  stone  of  the  Bunker  Hill 
Monument  which  as  far  excel  the  florid  egotisms  of 
Cicero  and  Demosthenes,  as  the  "Code  Napoleon  " 
surpasses  the  laws  which  Lycurgus  gave  to  Sparta, 
and  wickedly  and  vainly  supposing  them  perfect,  ex- 
acted an  oath  from  the  people,  that  they  should  nev- 
er be  altered  or  repealed.  In  the  present  condition 
of  the  world,  the  study  of  American  history,  especial- 
ly by  you,  would  be  I  think  of  far  more  practicable 
advantage  than  that  ot  any  other  State  ancient  or 
modern,  and  in  the  present  condition  of  language  and 
the  increased  facilities  for  intercourse  with  all  parts 
of  the  world,  I  question  very  much  whether  the  study 
of  modern  languages  and  literature,  would  not  prove 
of  more  substantial  use  than  Greek  or  Latin.  It  is 
not  unlikely  that  the  number  of  languages  now  spo- 
ken in  the  world  is  less  than  formerly  for  obvious 
reasons,  and  yet  there  are  still  three  thousand,  of 
which  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  six  are  in  use  upon 
this  continent  alone,  587  in  Europe, and  27G  in  Afri- 
ca. 

It  is  amazing  to  think  how  little  the  great  mass  of 
even  educated  men  in  this  country,know  of  Washing-, 
ton  and  of  Shakspere.  On  the  continent  of  Europe,' 
such  ignorance  of  the  chief  characters  of  their  history 
and  especially  of  their  literature  in  a  Frenchman  or 
German,  would  be  deemed  inexcusable.  Try  any 
one  of  the  hundreds  of  humble  emigrants  of  the  lat- 
ter class,  you  meet  daily  in  our  larger  towns,  and 


16 

you  will  find  few  or  none,  who  have  not  read  some 
one  or  all  of  the  works  of  Schiller  and  Goethe.  The 
educated  classes  can  not  only  recite  whole  passages  from 
them,  hut  are  familiar  also  with  other  of  their  poets, 
and  he  who  knows  and  estimates  correctly  that  ap- 
preciation for  literature  and  especially  their  own  lit- 
erature which  distinguishes  a  German,  will  need  no 
letter  of  introduction  in  "  Fader  land." 

During  the  war  of  184 7-' 8,  I  made  the  acquaint- 
ance in  Mexico  of  the  Baron  Von  Groen,  an  officer  of 
the  household  troops  "of  the  King  of  Prussia.  We 
had  had  several  adventures  together  upon  the  cam- 
paign known  in  history  as  Lally's  march,  and  at  the 
conclusion  of  hostilities  returned  in  the  same  ship  to- 
gether. The  Baron  spoke  such  good  English  that  I 
had  never  had  an  opportunity  of  letting  him  discover 
how  little  I  knew  of  his  language,  although  we  had 
been  somewhat  intimate  for  many  months,  and  had 
served  together  in  several  engagements.  It  was  on  a 
bright  sunny  afternoon  that  we  both  stood  upon  the 
quarter  deck  of  the  old  steamer  Massachusetts,  in  the 
harbour  of  Vera  Cruz.  My  friend  leaned  over  the 
taffrail,  and  gazed  in  profound  meditation  upon  the 
frowning  battlements  of  the  Castle  of  San  Juan  D' 
Ullua.  The  flitting  shadows  of  that  starred  rainbow, 
which  eleven  years  ago  rose  above  those  towers,  in 
promise  of  a  political  salvation  which  has  not  yet 
been  realized, alone  interrupted  the  steady  glow  which 
at  the  moment  bathed  the  flag  and  staff,  the  tower 
and  the  glorious  gulf  beyond,  in  the  joyous  red  and 
golden  hues  of  a  tropical  sunset.  The  Castle  looked 
up  from  the  sea  as  though  it  wore  a  diadem,  and  re- 
joiced in  a  royal  robe,  I  approached  my  friend  with- 
out being  able  to  disturb  his  reverie  and  alluding  to 
the  splendid  scene  before  us,  recited  the  melancholy 
verse  of  Uhland : 

'Has  du  das  Schloss  gesehen, 
Das  hohe  Schloss  am  Meer, 
Golden  und  rosig  weheD, 


IT 

Die  Wolken  druber  her." 

Scarcely  stopping  to  see  who  had  thus  addressed 
him,  and  his  mind  occupied,  no  doubt,  with  a  simi- 
lar sentiment  or  dreaming  of  the  glorious  Rhine  whose 
every  height  is  crowned  by  some  old  baronial  hall, 
and  each  has  its  story  of  love  and  chivalry  ;  he  repli- 
ed to  me  without  a  moments  hesitation,  using 
the  language  of  the  same  author,  and  in  the  stanza, 
next  but  one  of  the  same  poem  : 
'Wohl   hab  Ich  es  gesekeu, 

Das  hohe  Schloss  am  Meer, 
Und  den  Moud  daruber  steheu, 
Und  Rebel  weit  umher  !' 

Poor  fellow  !  we  parted  soon  after  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  never  to  meet  again.  He  reached  Berlin 
a  day  or  two  only  before  the  rebellions  of  1848  broke 
out,  and  as  I  have  since  learned,  perished  in  the  de- 
fence of  his  King.  While  I — I  had  almost  forgotten  it 
am  here  young  gentlemen  addressing  you  upon 
Education,  in  the  interior  of  North  Carolina. 

The  last  reason  I  shall  urge  for  the  preference  of 
modern  history  and  modern  .literature  is,  that  the 
text  of  the  ancient  writers  has  been  now  so  often 
translated,  reviewed,  and  reprinted,  that  I  under- 
take to  say  that  if  Cicero  and  Demosthenes  were  to 
rise  from  their  graves,  and  attend  this  school,  I  fan- 
cy they  would  find  quite  as  much  difficulty  as  you, 
in  reading  and  understanding  their  own  orations.— 
That  the  suggestion  is  not  simply  ridiculous,  ask 
any  objector  to  compare  the  Lord's  prayer  as  origi- 
nally printed  and  used  in  England  a  hundred  years 
ago,  with  the  present  version  of  the  same  noble  sup- 
plication. 

I  have  thus  attempted,  young  gentlemen,  to  en- 
numerate  some  of  the  leading  facilities  this  school 
will  afford,  if  you  are  honestly  disposed  to  learn,  and 
I  have  attempted  too  to  suggest  one  or  more  of  those 
grand  highways,  in  which  your  thoughts  may  safely 
travel.  My  remarks  have  been  of  necessity  general, 
but  you  will  do   yourselves   and    me  no  in  justice,,  in 


18 

taking  whatever  you  feel  to  be  applicable,  as  person- 
ally addressed  to  you  each. 

I  must  repeat  that  you  will  accomplish  nothing 
hereor  in  the  world  beyond,without  labour,diligence, 
hardstudy  and  application.  Your  parents  have  put 
themselves  to  no  small  expense  in  sending  you  here, 
and  maintaining  you  while  occupied  in  your  studies. 
They  have  the  right  to  expect  that  you  will  acquit 
yourselves  creditably  in  the  pending  examination, 
and  in  your  future  progress.  "  I  learned  grammar," 
says  Wm.  Cobbett,  "when  I  was  a  private  soldier  on 
the  pay  of  a  sixpence  a  day.  The  edge  of  my  berth, 
or  that  of  my  guard-bed >  was  my  seat  to  study  in  ; 
my  knapsack  my  book  case,  and  a  bit  of  board  lying 
on  my  lap  was  my  writing  table.  I  had  no  money 
to  purchase  a  candle  or  oil ;  in  winter,  it  was  rarely 
that  I  could  get  any  light  but  the  fire,  and  only  my 
turn  even  at  that.  To  buy  a  pen  or  piece  of  paper,  I 
was  compelled  to  forego  some  portion  of  my  food, 
though  in  a  state  of  half  starvation  ;  I  had  not  a  mo- 
ment to  call  my  own  ;  had  to  read  and  write  amid 
the  talking,  laughing,  singing,  whistling,,  and  baw- 
ling of  at  least  a  half  a  score  of  the  most  reckless 
men — and  that,  too,  in  their  hours  of  freedom  from 
all  control.' '  And  I  say  if  under  such  circumstances  as 
these,  a  poor  boy,  the  son  of  a  tavern  keeper  and  in- 
debted to  his  father  for  the  only  teaching  he  ever  re- 
ceived, did  rise  to  the  highest  rank  as  a  writer  and  a 
scholar,there  is  not  a  boy  in  this  assembly  who  ought 
not  to  feel  himself  qualified  for  at  least  an  honorable 
mention  !  Remember  there  is  not  a  boy  in  this  as- 
sembly who  is  not  socially  and  politically  the  superi- 
or of  this  illustrious  man  in  the  beginning  of  his  ca- 
reer ;  because  there  is  not  a  boy  here  who  may  not 
aspire  to,  and  win  the  highest  professional  or  politi- 
cal distinction  this  broad  and  favored  land  can  con- 
fer. Not  one  but  may  if  he  chooses  be  a  lawyer,  a 
doctor,  a  clergyman,  a  teacher3an  editor  or  a  politi- 
cian, and  a  highly   meritorious  one  too,  provided  al- 


19 

ways  he  will  willingly  undergo  the  drudgery  and  la- 
bor either  of  these  callings  require.  In  point  of 
real  dignity  none  of  them  compare  however  with 
that  of  the  farmer.  A  virtuous  and  educated  farmer 
is  the  true  autocrat  of  our  social  system,  and  the  day 
is  rapidly  approaching  when  assuming  their  proper 

Elace  in  the  social  scale,  a  place  from  which  they 
ave  been  excluded  so  long,  by  reason  only  of  the 
general  inferiority  of  their  attainments,  men  in  other 
occupations  will,  as  in  England,  retire  before  them. 
Every  one  who  can  afford  it  should  become  a  farmer. 
All  other  businesses  in  life  should  be  regarded  but  as 
means  for  acquiring  the  capital  necessary  to  retire  to 
the  country,  There  is  no  exercise  so  healthy  and  ex- 
hilarating ;  there  is  no  occupation  so  independent ; 
and  whether  a  man's  homestead  be  measured,  like 
mine,  by  the  square  yard,  or  include  a  thousand 
acres,  he  should  occasionally  at  least  Water  it  with 
the  sweat  of  his  brow.  A  certain  amount  of  physical 
labor  is  indispensable  to  physical  and  intellectual 
health, and  he  who  lives  wholly  on  the  sweat  of  other 
men  is  a  drone  unfit  for  a  civilized  and  progressive 
community.  Kead  the  fourth  chapter  of  I'hessalo- 
nians,  and  the  multitudinous  pages  of  society  and 
learn,  that  labor  is  obedience  to  law  ;  a  blessing  and 
not  a  curse. 

I  sincerely  trust,  that  avoiding  the  bar  the  pulpit 
and  the  hospital,  many  of  you  will  give  to  the  busi- 
ness of  Agriculture,  the  talents  and  education  you 
will  acquire  at  this  school,  and  that  you  will  not  be 
ashamed  to  add  a  dignity  to  labor  by  exhibiting  in 
your  own  persons  the  example  of  educated  men,  willing 
according  to  the  apostolic  decree,  to  work  with 
your  own  hands. 

^he  pathway  to  the  highest  social  distinction  is  al- 
so open  to  you  all.  Those  inequalities  of  rank  and 
position  which  exist  elsewhere,  prevail  also  in  the 
world  around  us,  and  it  is  useless  folly  to  pretend  to 
ignore  or  to  despise  them.     As  the  poet  saith, 


10 

"Order  is  Heaven's  first  law,  and  this  confessed, 
Some  are  and  must  be  greater  than  the  rest." 

'The  only  land/  it  is  truly  said,  'in  which  perfect  lib- 
erty prevails  is  the  land  of  dreams.  The  night  cap, is 
the  cap  of  liberty."  An  'aristocracy'  of  some  sort,  is  a 
social  necessity.  Whatever  be  the  form  of  govern- 
ment, the  few  will  rule  ;  whatever  be  the  form  of  so- 
ciety, men  will  differ  in  point  of  talent,  wealth,  vir- 
tue and  cultivation.  These  give  rise  invariably  and 
inevitably  to'  differences  of  position.  Let  your  efforts 
be  always  directed  to  the  elevation  of  the  virtuous 
and  the  capable  whatever  be  their  origin  ;  and  of  an 
'aristocracy'  so  composed, you  need  never  be  ashamed, 
nay,  you  owe  it  to  yourselves  to  be  members.  Every 
white  man  born  in  this  part  of  the  world,  of  honest 
parents,  is  a  gentleman,  and  can  only  descend  from 
that  position  by  his  own  folly  or  viciousness,  or  the 
neglect  of  his  parents  to  qualify  him  to  be  agreeable. 
We  have  no  "  masses  of  people/'  as  that  term  is  un- 
derstood and  contemptuously  applied  in  non-slave- 
holding  countries.  Our  professional  men  are  not 
usually  altogether  and  exclusively  doctors,  lawyers 
or  clergymen ;  they  are  also  farmers  ;  they  are  engag- 
ed in  other  businesses  than  these  specialites.  The  far- 
mers are  rapidly  rising  into  an  educated  and  power- 
ful class.  The  "masses  of  the  people"  are  therefore 
©ur  'aristocracy/  or  rather  they  are  identical,  since 
nothing  but  the  taint  of  negro  blood,  inherent  vul- 
garity and  crime  disqualify  any  man  here  from  ap- 
pearing in  reputable  society  ;  and,  in  every  party  of 
gentlemen,  however  exclusive,  you  will  meet  persons 
of  almost  every  honorable  occupation. 

I  trust  you  will  all  succeed  in  reaching  whatever 
is  high  and  noble  in  the  social  scale,  but  failing  to 
reach  the  summit  and  forced  to  be  content  with  a 
subordinate  place,  may  you  never  succeed  if  you 
should  meanly  attempt  to  level  that  summit  to  the  dust. 
Whatever  be  the  height  which  you  shall  attain,  you 
will  find  there  duties  as  well  as  enjoyments.     What- 


m 

ever  may  be  the  obscurity  which  you  may  choose,  of 
to  which  you  may  be  assigned,there  too  will  be  found 
a  sphere  of  happiness  and  of  responsibility. 
'  'Honor  and  shame  from  no  condition  rise, 
Act  well  your  part — there  all  the  honor  lies." 
Another  remark  and  I  have  done.  The  preserva- 
tion of  popular  institutions  in  this  country  de- 
pends upon  the  intelligence  and  the  independence  of 
the  people.  The  educated  are  usually  independent 
and  virtuous,  and  so  long  as  the  population  is  not 
overcrowded  there  is  no  danger  of  public  liberty  ;  but, 
when  the  people  of  this  land,  abandoning  the  pure 
air  of  these  scented  fields  and  the  simple  habits  of  ag- 
ricultural life  shall  stimulate  these  villages  to 
towns,  and  these  towfis  into  cities^  the  days  of  the 
Republic  are  numbered.  But  that  day  is  far  off  yet. 
Still  are 

" These  rocks  Freedom's  towers, 

These  hills  her  home ;  and  when  she  stands 
On  Times  far  future  shore,  she  still 
Shall  see  her  children  o'er  them  roam, 
And  up  the  rolling  clouds,  her  eagles  soar !" 

Young  gentlemen,  you  will  soon  be  called  to  ad- 
minister the  government  and  transmit  the  rights, 
which  the  heros  of  the  revolution  established  and  ac- 
quired by  much  blood  and  fearful  sacrifice.  This 
great  State  with  all  its  wealth  and  woe,  its  extensive 
and  various  mines,  its  green  and  cloud  capped  moun- 
tains, its  silver  rivers,  steamers,  ships,  railways  and 
printing  presses,  will  soon  be  yours.  No  thinking 
man,  whose  children's  fate  is  thus  bound  up  with 
yours  together,  but  must  feel  interested  in  your  pro- 
gress here  and  hereafter.  May  God  in  his  mercy 
grant,  that  fully  instructed  in  the  responsibility 
which  is  about  to  rest  upon  you  before  the  %e  and 
to  posterity,  you  will  come  up  to  the  discharge  of 
these  duties  with  a  religious  zeal,  and  avert  the  ca- 
lamity which  seems  impending  upon  our  country, 

"Let  the  American  youth,"    says  Judge  Story, 


•22 

never  forget  that  they  possess  a  noble  inheritance 
bought  by  the  toils  and  sufferings  and  blood  of  their 
ancestors,  and  capable,  if  wisely  improved  and  safely 
guarded,  of  transmitting  to  their  latest  posterity  all 
the  substantial  blessings  of  life,  the  peaceful  enjoy- 
ment of  liberty,  property,  religion  and  independence. 
The  structure  has  been  erected  by  architects  of  consu- 
mate  skill  and  fidelity.  Its  foundations  are  solid. — 
Its  compartments  are  beautiful  as  well  as  useful.  Its 
arrangements  are  full  of  wisdom  and  order.  Its  de- 
fences are  impregnable  from  without.  It  has  been 
reared  for  immortality  if  the  work  of  man  may  justly 
aspire  to  such  a  title  !  Nevertheless  it  may  perish 
in  an  hour  by  the  negligence  or  the  corruption  of  its 
only  true  keepers^the  people.  Kepublics  are  founded  in 
the  virtu >,  public  spirit  and  intelligence  of  their  citi- 
zens. They  fall  when  the  wise  and  the  independent 
are  banished  from  the  public  councils  because  they 
dare  to  be  honest,  and  the  profligate  and  the  dema- 
gogue are  rewarded  because  they  flatter  the  people, 
and  betray  them  V* 


. 


U. 


%  . 


: 


Vi 


K 


